Short Interest in Autohome Inc. (NYSE:ATHM) Grows By 27.7%

Autohome Inc. (NYSE:ATHM) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,980,000 shares, an increase of 27.7% from the October 31st total of 1,550,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 491,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Autohome

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ATHM. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Autohome in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in Autohome by 88.9% in the 1st quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of Autohome by 93.9% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,397 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 2,614 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Autohome during the 3rd quarter worth $219,000. Finally, BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Autohome in the third quarter worth $228,000. Institutional investors own 63.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ATHM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. CLSA downgraded shares of Autohome from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised Autohome to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Autohome from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.00.

Autohome Price Performance

ATHM stock traded up $0.78 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $28.29. The stock had a trading volume of 510,482 shares, compared to its average volume of 473,754. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.53. Autohome has a fifty-two week low of $21.89 and a fifty-two week high of $34.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 13.69 and a beta of 0.18.

Autohome Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $1.15 dividend. This is an increase from Autohome’s previous Variable dividend of $0.57. This represents a yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Autohome’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.58%.

Autohome declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, September 4th that allows the company to buyback $0.00 in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People’s Republic of China. The company delivers interactive content and tools to automobile consumers through its three websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com, and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile applications, and mini apps.